The manufacture and use of edible containers generally has long been known in the art. For hundreds of years, people have wrapped food in edible flat breads which serve to contain and transport the foodstuffs contained therein and also served as a container from which the food could be eaten along with the container. Another such long-known edible container is the elongate bread loaf or French bread loaf which may be hollowed out and filled with a selection of foodstuffs. The resilient bread crust serves to protect the food contained therein and serve as a means for transporting the food, as well as means for serving the food which can be eaten along with the food. The advantage of the French bread loaf container is the provision of a resilient outer surface which lends itself to transporting the foodstuff contained therein. Yet another long-known edible container is the sweet batter cone or ice cream cone which may be made from a rolled up crepe-type or flat pancake-type starting structure or which may be made by an injection mold which receives batter therein, the mold being heated to solidify the batter into the shape of a cone.
Three types of edible containers have more recently been developed and are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,091 to Van Horne and U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,748 to Ito and U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,897 to Goldstein.
The Van Horne structure is a series of cup-shaped receptacles which are sized for placement within the human mouth and having bridges joining the adjacent receptacles. This permits the cup-shaped receptacles to be filled with fluid foodstuffs and serially inserted into the mouth while the individual can break the bridges joining adjacent receptacles with the teeth to allow each individual cup-shaped receptacle to be eaten.
In the patent to Ito, an edible container, and the method of manufacturing the container, are shown. In Ito a generally cylindrical container is prepared by wrapping a sheet of edible dough around a mandrel to form a cylinder. The lower edge of the sheet of dough is provided with a scalloped edge comprising adjacent parabolic pieces of dough which are folded inwardly to overlap and create the bottom of the cylinder.
In the patent to Goldstein, a conical food article is provided which is formed by wrapping a strip of dough about a conical mandrel. The elongate strip is of uncooked bread dough which is then baked while in contact with the mandrel to cook the dough and provide a solid bread cone, the interior of which may be filled with foodstuffs. The edible food container of Goldstein, however, is not provided with any utilitarian means of commercial manufacture and teaches only a method of individually spirally wrapping the dough strip about the mandrel. The sealing of the various edges created by the wrapping of the dough strip around the mandrel is compensated for by the use of cornstarch to assist to gluing or cementing the wrapped cone together. Goldstein teaches that it is useful to apply some pressure while wrapping the dough strip around the mandrel and that sufficient tension must be applied to the dough strip as it is wound so that there are no gaps in the structure.
The conical food article of Goldstein, therefore, presents a number of problems in manufacture and in the resulting product which are undesirable in a food container. The potential for the bottom of the cone to be improperly sealed and allow the leakage of foodstuff therefrom and the potential for the seams of the overlapping portions of the strip of dough to be improperly joined, thus creating gaps which can leak foodstuffs is a problem that should be avoided in any food container.
The present invention avoids these limitations and drawbacks of the Goldstein container while providing an apparatus for the manufacturer of a substantial number of cones that can be applied to a commercial process.
Further, a dough mixture is provided which is particularly suited to the cone-forming apparatus, and which through its particular consistency and other dough characteristics permit successful formation of the conical edible container with the inventive apparatus.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for forming an edible cone-shaped food container that provides for unitary construction of the cone-shaped food container.
It is another object of the invention to provide an edible food container which avoids the presence of connection lines or required points of closure between the structural components forming the cone-structure such as at the vertex of the cone or joints created by overlapping strips of material.
It is another object of the invention to provide an edible cone-shaped food container that is made of a bread dough rather than an unleavened cracker-like substance and which provides the consumer with the texture and taste of a bread product.